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Trump administration still riddled with key vacanciesIn the News

August 11, 2017

The Senate ended its bitterly partisan health care debate last week with little-noticed harmony on confirmations, as more than five dozen picks by President Donald Trump were cleared for senior posts across the government. But that spree of approvals still leaves the president with 147 nominees awaiting Senate action — significantly more than the previous four administrations had as of early August, according to a tally kept by the independent Partnership for Public Service.

State Department confronts North Korea with rows of vacant positionsIn the News

August 11, 2017

The rising tensions between President Trump and the missile-launching government of North Korea are playing out with a State Department that continues to operate with corridors of unfilled leadership jobs. The Trump White House has made only a third of the nominations needed to fill 130 key jobs at the department, according to a tracking tool from the Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post.

A bunch of North Korea-related posts in the Trump administration are still emptyIn the News

August 10, 2017

Tensions between the United States and North Korea are growing stronger and all eyes are focused on how President Donald Trump and his team will navigate the road ahead. There's just one wrinkle: a lot of major posts across the executive branch are still empty, because the Trump administration has yet to nominate them.

Appointee watch: Pace of names slows during recessIn the News

August 10, 2017

A week after the Senate voted to confirm an array of President Trump’s nominees to key administration posts, Congress is now in recess and the president is on a working vacation in New Jersey. But the process of identifying candidates for government positions has not stopped.

Four top cybersecurity officials are leaving U.S. governmentIn the News

August 10, 2017

Four senior cybersecurity officials are stepping down from their US government positions, raising concerns that an exodus of top leaders may make the federal government more vulnerable to hacking. Two of those resigning – Sean Kelley, the chief information security officer for the Environmental Protection Agency, and Richard Staropoli, the chief information officer for the Department of Homeland Security – had been in their jobs for just a few months.

To tame North Korea, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson must master WashingtonIn the News

August 09, 2017

Rex Tillerson wants Americans to sleep well at night, even with a trigger-happy dictator in North Korea and a Twitter-tapping president at the White House threatening nuclear Armageddon. But Tillerson's task as the nation's chief diplomat facing his first major international crisis is tougher than promoting sweet dreams. He must try to tamp down President Trump's threat of "fire and fury" with an oilman's background, a depleted senior staff, a threatened budget crunch and a power struggle with the White House.

Here's what President Trump achieved since his first 100 daysIn the News

August 08, 2017

As President Trump approached his first 100 days in office, he called it a "ridiculous standard," while House Speaker Paul Ryan said it was too soon to judge progress. "I talked about 200 days because I thought the kind of agenda that we're attempting to put together here — overhauling health care, overhauling the tax system, rebuilding our military, securing the border — those take more than just a few months," Ryan said in April. On Monday, Trump hit the 200-day mark, but major achievements still remain elusive.

Senior U.S. envoy tries to calm fears over State Department re-designIn the News

August 08, 2017

The No. 2 U.S. diplomat on Tuesday sought to allay concerns among the State Department's rank-and-file employees over possible layoffs and perceptions of a lack of firm direction under the administration of President Donald Trump.

President Trump's nominations lagging after 200 days in officeIn the News

August 07, 2017

President Donald Trump is lagging behind his predecessors on filling positions in his administration as he reached 200 days in office Monday. Trump has nominated 277 people for key posts in his administration with 124 confirmed and eight withdrawn, according to CNN's tracker. The Partnership for Public Service noted 577 executive branch positions as particularly essential -- and Trump has only successfully filled about a fifth of them. In all, there are 4,000 positions across government that are not civil service jobs but are political appointments. A total of 1,200 of those require Senate confirmation.

At the 200-day mark, Trump is still behind on nominationsIn the News

August 07, 2017

During his first 200 days in office, President Donald Trump has sent 279 nominations to the Senate for confirmation. That compares to more than 400 nominations for Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush at the same point in their administrations. President Trump still hasn't nominated anyone for some key economic positions. “We still do not have a deputy secretary at the Department of Commerce," said Kristine Simmons, with the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group focuses on government efficiency. "There’s also no head at the Office of Patent and Trademark.”

Trump's government overhaul hits a speed bumpIn the News

August 07, 2017

President Donald Trump’s promise to overhaul the federal government hit another obstacle last week when his pick to head the Office of Personnel Management, George Nesterczuk, quietly withdrew from consideration—leaving the administration with no nominee to run a small but crucial agency that oversees policies for all 2 million employees of the federal government and would be integral to any sweeping effort to reform its workforce.

At 200-day mark, Trump nominations still lag In the News

August 07, 2017

On President Donald Trump's 200th day in office, he still lags far behind his predecessors in staffing up his administration, both in terms of nominations and confirming those positions. Any new administration has to fill roughly 4,000 positions across the government, more than 1,200 of which require Senate confirmation. While no administration can accomplish that task in 200 days, the nonprofit good-government group Partnership for Public Service recommends having the most important 300-400 confirmed by August recess.

Where Trump’s nominations and confirmations stand as the Senate packs up for AugustIn the News

August 04, 2017

One of Trump’s most common complaints about Congress has been what he calls its “obstruction” of his nominees. Trump got a big boost in his number of confirmations on Thursday, though, when the Senate greenlighted dozens of pending nominees before leaving town.

At 200-day mark, Trump still trails predecessors in filling jobsIn the News

August 04, 2017

Just ahead of President Donald Trump’s 200th day in office, the Senate confirmed dozens of his nominees in a significant sign of a stepped-up pace to fill jobs, including judgeships. In all, the Senate on Thursday unanimously confirmed 78 nominees, among them three judges and seven military officers. The remaining confirmations were for civilian political appointees across the executive branch

'Death by a thousand cuts': Empty State Department offices sap morale, some staffers sayIn the News

August 04, 2017

For four years, Ira N. Forman served as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, a State Department post in which he advocated on behalf of Jewish communities at risk around the globe. He resigned, as required for political appointees, on Jan. 20, the day President Trump took office. But six months later, Forman and his staff have not been replaced.

The Partnership for Public Service is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that believes good government starts with good people. We help government serve the needs of all Americans by strengthening the civil service and the systems that support it.